161–170 of 471 posts
> I can’t say the same about my coffee grinders. I use the plural because I’ve owned a lot of them, all bought in their original packaging and dead within a year. They’re good ones, supposedly, with burrs not blades, but they stop performing before long Anecdotal, but if anyone is looking for a good coffee grinder that doesn't break the bank, can't say enough good things about my Baratza Encore. 10+ years of near dai…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seconded, though I'd add that with the current concerns about climate change and resource utilization, we need to think a bit more about product lifecycle and this is a reasonable way of illustrating that. If the embodied environmental impact of a product increases 10% to make it last 100% longer then we need to think about making that change rather than producing twice as many to replace the broken ones.
one thing about some of the shitty products out there today is we got MUCH better at making things out of less material. So they break easier and wear out faster, but we've been able to reduce material usage along with price. If you're a person who loses pens or holds onto them so long the ink dries up, it'd be better to waste an object made as cheaply as possible than one made to last. This is a balance to play as w…
The easiest way to clean it up significantly is to better tax industry such that energy, resource usage, and transportation are all represented in the price such that the economy actually reflects the environmental impact of production rather than just the business costs of the moment.
Ok no. First of all: survivorship bias. All of the old appliances that still work are only the ones which still work. This goes for the author's juicer. Second: things which have investment attention now are excellent quality and things which are waning towards the end of their lifecycle are having the last few corners cut before the Private Equity firm that now owns them throws in the towel, throughly wrung dry. Aut…
Ok no. First of all: survivorship bias. All of the old appliances that still work are only the ones which still work. This goes for the author's juicer. Second: things which have investment attention now are excellent quality and things which are waning towards the end of their lifecycle are having the last few corners cut before the Private Equity firm that now owns them throws in the towel, throughly wrung dry. Aut…
I’ve had to buy a lot of furniture and other things for my new house this year, and one of the things that really sticks out to me is that practically every category of product seems to be split into a bimodal distribution: cheap crap & luxury boutique. There are practically no entries occupying the middle of the market that are on the basic end regarding features & frills but also high-quality. It’s incredibly annoy…
That's a mind-boggling anecdote. As an example, Crate and Barrel are known to make good, high-quality couches, and many of them are far less than $5000
It's really hard to find anything non-antique that uses better materials or craftsmanship. They do exist and I own a few pieces but the prices for such things will make you blush. There's no middle anymore where you forgo labor intensive details like hand-carved detailing, complex bends and shapes, hand stitching, embroidered patterns, or fancy internal mechanisms but keep the "can still last generations" build quality for somewhat reasonable prices.
I feel arguments like this always ignore the fact that buying a toaster in 1950 was a major investment for a family, and if you want to spend $2000 on a high-end toaster in 2023, which is probably equivalent in inflation-adjusted price to the 1950s toaster, it will probably also be very nice.
you really underestimate the living standards of 1950. in many ways higher than today.
Maybe it’s even a good thing? I’m not sure we need more seductive iGarbage in our lives, distracting from the only things that matter. Maybe the next visit to Amazon will tell you what that is.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some plastic parts are intentional / sacrificial. Even so, the old mixers were definitely built to last.
Plastic gears have lower friction and don't require greasing. They aren't really bad on their own. The problem is you can't find replacement parts when they break.
You'll need digital calipers as well. You can cheap out for $20, or get Mitutoyo's for $200.
A scanner's also nice in scanning a geometry thats flat, but not required.
Just with a 3d printer and a meager ket, you can replace most current commercial crap in a few hours, and have the replacement as a file you can call on any time.
That's how I'm handling this "throw away culture" shit. I'm replicating what I need and throwing away the actual broken bits.
Reduce, Reuse, REPAIR, Recycle. (Hint: the manufacturers want you to forget the 4th, hidden R.)
Also don't buy anything that has a gibberish manufacturer name in all caps. https://www.readingeagle.com/2020/02/12/all-your-favorite-br...
This is almost the correct answer, but the real reason is a bit more nuanced. There's a few parts to the answer, so I'll break them out:
So, as many people know and be-groans, businesses have been optimized by MBA-types who aim to extract as much value out of their companies as possible. In creating a product, that means giving exactly what the customer will purchase. In a competitive and elastic market, if you miss expectations, your customers will not be happy, and soon you might not have customers. If you meet or noticeably exceed expectations, you will have happy customers. If you unnoticeably exceed expectations, you are doing nothing but wasting money. You should spend your money on things that customers notice and care about, and stop spending money on things that customers don't know or don't care about, because they just inflate your costs, and ultimately, the final price of the product.
Designing a physical product is always a balancing act of cost, quality, and requirements. Designing a product with more robust components costs more. And the more robust it is, the more expensive it is.
Today, there are very good tools for determining how products will behave in the real world. Engineers are good at knowing how long a part will last in a particular application. Material science is more mature, and so is CAD and other analysis tools. There are also many more available materials and methods of manufacturing. The result is that engineers today have many more tools to enable them to design a product that is closer to their balance of engineering targets. If someone sets price, quality, and functionality requirements, those goals can be hit more closely than in years past, when there were fewer materials and fewer manufacturing methods.
Because of all of the above reasons, appliance manufacturers have been able to produce appliances that sell better. And in fact, the change in the typical lifestyle proves this -- household appliances that were once luxury purchases (which almost all of them were 70 years ago) are now expected in many households. There are many things that have changed in the past 70 years to make this happen. Prices have gone way down, manufacturing and material science has improved, new types of appliances have been invented, and new features have been added.
However, I think it's also important to remember that mass market appliances are designed for the lowest-common-denominator set of requirements. Most home consumers, demonstrably, are not making purchasing decisions based on a product's ability to last 70 years. Should they? Maybe, depending on how long they actually want to use it before it goes out of style and they throw it away. Would it be better for the world and the environment? Potentially, under the condition that it would actually continue to be used.
The bottom line is that most people don't buy heavy duty appliances because most people don't buy heavy duty appliances. However, heavy duty appliances DO exist! They're made for commercial market buyers who actually do put their appliances through heavy use and do have higher requirements for longevity and duty cycle. If you look at these appliances, many are built a lot like mid 20th century appliances.